From now until the NCAA Tournament games begin on Tuesday night, all sorts of experts and prognosticators, along with millions of amateurs competing in office pools, will attempt to predict the outcomes of all 67 of the tournament’s games. People have all sorts of reasons to pick one team over another. Some break down game footage; others look at advanced statistics; and still others give preference to schools they or their friends attended. But what if we took a different approach and picked teams based on the strength of their mascots? Who would win in a match-up between a Spartan and a Crusader or between an orange and a grizzly bear? Mascotology breaks down the entire NCAA Tournament field by looking at who would prevail in a hypothetical meeting of mascots. For the purposes of this exercise, I am judging the mascot by the person or creature it represents rather than on the quality of the costume itself. But, in cases where it is difficult to pick a winner, I give myself license...

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